Wisconsin continued to roll, with a win over Marquette on Saturday. For whatever reason, the Golden Eagles have been an annual root canal for the Badgers. Entering the game on Saturday, Bo Ryan was 6-6 against Marquette, despite the fact that Wisconsin has clearly been the better team on balance over those seasons. And although Marquette pulled to within 3 with about two minutes to play, this was a game that Wisconsin controlled throughout. The outside shots weren’t falling (27 percent on 3s), which would normally be a problem for a team so reliant on 3s as Wisconsin is. But

After a busy nine-game slate Saturday, there were only two Big Ten men’s basketball games Sunday. Illinois walloped Auburn, 81-62, in Atlanta, while Nebraska is taking on Creighton. Catch up on all of Sunday’s action in this post. ILLINOIS 81, AUBURN 62 | RECAP | BOX | PLAY-BY-PLAY (AP) Rayvonte Rice scored 22 points Sunday, when he and Illinois shot at a torrid pace on the way to routing Auburn 81-62 in Philips Arena. This was considered a “home” game for Auburn, which last year played Illinois in Chicago’s United Center as a visiting team. The Illini (8-1) made a

Before the NCAA banned on-court stickers, Tom Izzo and several of his fellow coaches made it known they weren’t fans of them. It’s not because the stickers resulted in an eye-sore, but because they were a slipping hazard and caused injury. ESPN found another way to get the Big Ten/ACC Challenge logo on the courts during this week’s event. The network digitally inserted the “stickers” on the court. And, you wouldn’t have known the stickers were missing unless you attended one of the games. These ACC-Big Ten Challenge emblems are being inserted digitally by ESPN. Wild: pic.twitter.com/U4Tcj0Aof9 — Land-Grant Holy

The Big Ten put itself in a hole Tuesday night, going 2-4 against the Atlantic Coasters. Let’s take a look at just how it happened. We had predicted a split on the Challenge’s opening night, and we were awfully close to going six-for-six. How close? Well, in the one game we missed, Illinois held a 12-point lead over Georgia Tech with the ball and seven minutes remaining. In that situation, Georgia Tech had a win probability of just 2.8 percent. If you set up those teams with that time and score a hundred times, you’d expect Illinois to lose only three

It’s that time of year again, when the powers of the Midwest exert their basketball dominance over the Atlantic Coasters. Or at least that’s been the story in recent years, with the Big Ten taking three of the last four Challenges (last season was an unsatisfying tie). We won’t talk about what happened in the 10 prior Challenges. We’re going to give a quick rundown on each of the 12 games, complete with our picks. First, here’s our look at Tuesday’s games. ** Notre Dame at Iowa Pomeroy says: Iowa by 12 The teams: Notre Dame has played the third-weakest schedule

It was while watching a Purdue team fall to Nebraska in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament last year that I assured my colleague, Tom Dienhart, that the Boilermakers were simply in a rebounding season. They would be back next year, I told him, and I had no reservations about that. And why wouldn’t they be? The team returned a little over two-thirds of last year’s minutes, and last year wasn’t all that bad. Sure, it wasn’t up to Matt Painter’s usual standards, but the team was a significant upgrade over the likes of Northwestern, Penn State, and,

Tuesday and Wednesday brought a flurry of interesting results for Big Ten teams. Let’s dive in to what it all means. ** Minnesota had a rough couple days in Maui, losing to Syracuse and Arkansas by a combined 22 points. The problem in both games was defense, as the Gophers’ zone was often porous and ineffective. Cue Dramatic Gopher! Coming into the season, the big question with Minnesota was how much it would get out of its frontcourt. Thus far, the results are decidedly mixed. Elliott Eliason is off to a good start with his rebounding and shotblocking, but Oto

Tuesday featured a handful of Big Ten men’s hoops games, including No. 25 Indiana blasting instate foe Evansville, 77-46, at Assembly Hall. Track all the day’s action, plus get select video highlights, in this post. [ MORE: View Tuesday’s full Big Ten men’s hoops schedule ] ILLINOIS 61, UNLV 59 | RECAP | BOX | PLAY-BY-PLAY (AP) Rayvonte Rice is making a name for himself in his young Illinois career.With his Illini and UNLV tied with under a minute to play, Rice took a pass from Tracy Abrams, saw an opening in the lane and converted a driving layup that